Thursday 6 July 2017

A Sterling Revenge

On July 5, 2016, two Baton Rouge police officers murdered Alton Sterling. No action was taken against them. On the first anniversary of this crime, New York police officer Miosotis Familia was assassinated by John (Alexander) Bonds. Action was taken against him promptly; he was shot dead after a chase.

Alton Sterling was not a nice person; he was a member of both the criminal element and the underclass. Pundits from Colin Flaherty to Larry Elder have as good as suggested he deserved it. Presumably Miosotis Familia was a nice person, as far as any police officer is; she was a mother of three. Only the lunatic fringe have suggested that she and people like her deserve to die.

It is almost certain that her execution was carried out in revenge for the slaying of Alton Sterling; incidentally, she was not the first, and may not be the last. Why would anyone murder a random police officer in cold blood? It could be because the American police have long since forgotten, if they ever knew it in the first place, that they are first and foremost public servants. YouTube and other social media sites contains thousands of hours of footage of American police officers using excessive force against members of the public, both suspected criminals and innocent people. Their victims are not all black, not all men, not all young. Some are very young, and some are quite elderly.

These people are assaulted, shot, sometimes killed. Sometimes? The modus operandi of the American police when dealing with certain types of people or people in certain situations is to shoot first and ask questions as an afterthought. Other times they go out of their way to harass or simply annoy people just because they can. A typical tactic is to stop a motorist and demand to search his or her vehicle. Mapp v Ohio (1961) protected the public against unreasonable searches and seizures, but this doesn’t apply to vehicles because all a police officer has to do is claim he can smell marijuana. Do you consent to a search, or do we wait here three hours for a K9? This is only one such tactic.

The British police are cunts; the American police are psychopaths, but now the public has had enough. They must be reigned in, in particular they must receive proper firearms training, and when they shoot people without profoundly good reason, they must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Miosotis Familia didn’t deserve to die, but neither did Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Walter Scott, or countless others. Weep for your fallen comrade if you must, but don’t be surprised if she is not the last when you continue to destroy other innocent lives.